MEET THE NEXT CEO OF MICROSOFT: Steven Sinofsky Is The Heir Apparent

Microsoft had just shipped the final code for Windows 7 to PC manufacturers, who had begun burning it onto the tens of millions of new computers that would ship that Christmas.

It should have been a triumphant moment for Steven Sinofsky.

In just over three years of running Windows, Sinofsky and his team had managed to clean up the worst messes in Windows Vista, add some new features and a fresh coat of paint, and — most importantly — get it out the door on time, before the holiday season.

The branding was refreshingly simple, a throwback to the early days of Microsoft: Windows 7. The early reviews were glowing. PC-makers were cautiously optimistic about a good holiday season after the disaster of 2008. Big business customers, who had mostly skipped Vista and stayed on XP, were starting to talk about upgrading.

Best of all, Steve Ballmer had just promoted Sinofsky to President — a title that Ballmer himself held for three years before becoming CEO.

But he was already planning Microsoft's next moves.

A few months later*, a former Microsoft exec tells us, Sinofsky was standing in front of the Windows team at the Seattle Convention Center, reading a press release from the future.

He knew that Windows was in serious danger. The iPhone had kicked off a smartphone revolution that was making the PC less relevant, and Apple had announced a new tablet computer called the iPad — an idea that Microsoft had been kicking around for almost a decade.

Only this Apple tablet would not be like a Mac. It would be like an iPhone — long battery life, big touch screen, and tens of thousands of apps that were so easy to install a five-year-old child could do it.

Sinofsky's press release described a completely reimagined version of Windows that would make the PC more approachable, easier to use, and more fun. “Radically human,” he called it.

Tomorrow, Microsoft will deliver the first consumer preview of Windows 8, giving everybody a chance to see how it looks and works. Based on early demonstrations so far, it will be exactly what was promised — a completely different and much more approachable version of Windows. And it will come out exactly on time, later this year.

But that’s no surprise — Steven Sinofsky is known for delivering exactly what he promises, and always on time.

Several people we spoke with for this article claim Sinofsky’s influence and personality drove them out of the company. Another former employee called him a “cancer.” Others used much ruder words than that.

But even his biggest detractors admit he’s brilliant when it comes to shipping complicated, high-quality software on a regular, predictable schedule. This has earned him the trust and respect of both Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

So love him or hate him, most people who know Microsoft agree.

Unless Windows 8 is a failure, Steven Sinofsky will be the next CEO of the company.

Next page: The Sinofsky Takeover →

*Update: Microsoft says that there was no large meeting to discuss the future of Windows in summer 2009, as our sources said. However, Microsoft acknowledges such a meeting happened in spring 2010. The story has been updated.